Weatherproofing structure for doors



D. H. HARNLY WEATHERPROOFING STRUCTURE FOR DOORS Filed Feb. 23, 1937 Jan. 25, 1938.

DAVID H. HARNLY m Patented Jan. 25, 1938 UNITED STATES WEATHERPROOFING STRUCTURE FOR DOORS David H. Harnly, Chicago, Ill.

Application February 23, 1937, Serial No. 127,006

14 Claims. (01. 20--69) This invention relates to weather-proofing structure for doors.

In the use of the weather strips now upon the market for doors that employ automatic closing means, a great deal of difliculty has been experienced in the failure of the doors to adequately compress the weather strips inorder to move them to fully closed position. As a rule, such automatic closing means as are generally used upon check doors, especially upon Pullman or railway cars, do not have the required power to force the doors to fully closed position against the weather strips.

It is an object of this invention to overcome this difliculty in the construction and mounting of a Weather strip that will extend at an angle toward the door opening and that requires very little force to be deflected toward the door jamb when the door is closed.

In the construction of such a weather strip, it is necessary that the eifective portion thereof possess a certain amount of resiliency. Then, the strip should be so mounted that its free contacting edge portion will have a tendency to project at an angle.

The invention comprises the novel structure and combination of parts hereinafter described and more particularly pointed out and defined in the appended claims.

In the accompanying drawing which illustrates a preferred form of this invention, and in which similar reference numerals refer to similar features in the different views:

Figure 1 is an elevational view of a door equipped and sealed by a weather proofing structure involving this invention.

Figure 2 is an enlarged sectional View taken upon the line IIII of Figure 1, looking in the direction of the arrows.

Figure 3 is an enlarged sectional view taken substantially upon the line IIIIII of Figure 1.

Figure 4 is an end elevational view of a strip of sponge rubber constituting the main part of the weather strip involving this invention.

Figure 5 is an end elevational view of a metal clamping strip constituting a part of this invention.

Figure 6 is a plan View of the assembled weather strip involving this invention attached to a side of the door frame.

Figure '7 is an enlarged sectional view taken upon the line VII-VII of Figure 6.

Figure 8 is an enlarged sectional view taken upon the line VIIIVIII of Figure 6.

Figure 9 is an elevational view of a corner of 2 vulcanized upon each face.

a door frame illustrating the application of the weather strip in rounding a corner.

Figure 10 is a view similar to Figure 4, illustrating a modified form of strip.

In its broadest aspects, this invention involves a flexible strip, that serves as a contacting member and that has sufficient resiliency to tend to return to its normal position, and that has preferably a weakened lower rear surface of such a character that when a clamp is applied over the rear portion, as shown, there will be a downward deflection that will tend to shorten the upper forward portion and cause-the same to assume an angle with respect to the plane of the attaching surface. I

While any suitable flexible strip that possesses the required resiliency may be used, the preferred strip that admirably meets the requirements consists of a relatively narrow flat strip of sponge rubber I with a suitable back of fabric A longitudinal portion of the bottom of the strip is weakened as by cutting the fabric away so that when pressure is applied to the upper or outer surface over the line of weakness the strip will be compressed therealong putting tension on the outer fabric layer and causing the free longitudinal edge portion to rise at an angle. This longitudinal weakened portion may be caused by a bevel as indicated at 3 (Figure 4) or by a groove as indicated at 4 in Figure 10; such a weakened or reduced section will cause the free edge portion to assume the desired angle.

While it will be appreciated that the edge portions can be slightly elevated by applying pressure along an intermediate line without a weakened bottom section, to obtain the desired elevation and result, it is desirable to make a weakened section in the bottom of the strip below the line where the clamp takes effect.

The clamping strip 5 that is applied to the strip I consists of suitable metal which is preferably formed at its idle edge with a short rightangled flange 6 and at its other edge with a flange 'I that slopes at an angle of approximately 45 degrees with respect to the plane of the body of the clamp. This slope of the flange I will bring the edge 8 substantially in alinement with the outwardly deflected forward portion of the strip I.

In assembling the parts, the strip I is placed in position upon a frame member 9, and the clamp 5 is superposed upon the strip I so that the edge of the flange I will be over thelower weakened section, while the rear flange 6 is beyond PATENT OFFICE l 'hinged door l2.

the confined edge of the strip I. The metal clamp is then screwed upon the weather strip by screws l5 which extend through suitable apertures formed in the clamp.

As the clamping strip 5 is screwed down, the edge 8 of the flange 1 thereof indents the outer fabric backing 2 and the strip I along the line of the weakened or reduced section compressing the sponge rubber therebeneath and putting the outer fabric backing layer under tension.- Since the pinching action caused by the flange 1 occurs along a reduced or weakened line of the strip l, at which the under layer of fabric backing Z is cut away, tension is imposed upon the outer fabric layer only and this causes the free edge portion of the strip l to be deflected outwardly from the frame member 9 to assume and maintain an angle with respect thereto. The portion of the strip I confined under the clamping strip 5 may also be deflected to some extent against the inside surface of the clamping strip.

In the drawing, there is shown an application to the side frame members 9 and the top frame member ll of a doorway which is closed by a It will be noted that the outwardly deflected portions of the weather strips extend at such an angle that they normally extend into the doorway so as to be engaged by the edge face of the door when it is closed. As the door is closed, these outwardly deflected portions of the weather strip will be engaged by the edge face of the door and moved substantiallyinto the positions shown in Figures 2 and 3 between the nearly abutting opposed faces of the door and door frame. The force required to deflect these weather strips into the positions shown in Figures 2 and 3 is-small and can easily be produced by any check door. At the same time, the weather strip will bear with sufficient force against the door to effectively excludethe weather.

In Figure 9, there is shown the manner in which such a weather strip can circumvent the corners of a doorway. It will be noted that the strip l is curved or bent around the corner while the adjacent clamping members 5 are mitered at the corners.

It is characteristic of this invention that the contacting portions of the weather strips are held in space and can readily be deflected without much force and without offering such resistance as to check the movements of a checkdoor or one that is automatically moved to closed position.

I am aware that many changes may be made and numerous details of construction may be varied through a wide range without departing from the principles of this invention, and I, therefore, do not purpose limiting the patent granted hereon otherwise than is necessitated by the prior art.

I claim as my invention:

1. In a weather-proofing structure, a supporting member, a resilient rubber weather strip having a weakened section at its lowerrear portion superposed upon said supporting member, and a clamping member having a flanged edge engaging said weather strip substantially over said weakened section and clampedto said supporting member for causing the forward portion of said strip to assume an angle with respect to said supporting member.

2. In a weather-proofing structure, a supporting member, a resilient rubber weather strip upon said supporting member, said strip having a weakened section beneath the outer surface and a clamp having an edge engaging said weakened section and forcing the contacting portion of said strip to assume an angle with respect to said supporting member.

3. In a weather-proofing structure, a supporting member, a resilient rubber strip upon said member, said strip being deformed upon its bottom to provide a depressible section, and a clamp engaging said depressible section and causing the contacting portion to assume an angle with respect to said supporting member.

4. In a weather-proofing structure, a supporting member, a strip of sponge rubber with fabric vulcanized upon each side for imparting resiliency thereto upon said member, said strip having a longitudinally extending weakened section in its lower side, and a clamp having an edge at an angle engaging said strip over said weakened section and depressing the same and causing the contacting portion to assume an angle with respect to said supporting member.

5. Ina weather-proofing structure, a supporting member, a strip of fabric coated rubber upon said member, said strip having a longitudinally extending weakened section in its bottom surface and a clamp having a clamping edge at an angle to the body portion engaging and depressing said strip at said weakened section and causing said contacting portion to assume and maintain an angular relation with respect to said support.

6. In a weather-proofing structure, a supporting member, a strip of sponge rubber having fabric vulcanized upon each side positioned upon said member, said strip having a longitudinally extending weakened section upon its lower surface, and aclamp having an edge bent at substantially an angle of forty-five degrees for engaging and depressing said weakened section and causing the contacting portion to assume an angle with relation to said supporting member, and,

means for securing said clamp to said supporting member.

.7. In a weather-proofing structure, a supporting member, a strip of sponge rubber having fabric vulcanized upon its outer side and having its lower rear margin beveled, said strip being positioned upon said supporting member, and a metal clamping member secured over the rear margin of said strip and having its front edge gripping said weather strip above said beveled margin and depressing the same and causing the forward portion of said strip to assume an angle with relation to said supporting member.

8. In a weather-proofing structure, a supporting member, a resilient weather strip upon said member, said weather strip having a lower reduced portion, and a clamping member engaging over the rear margin of said strip and having means depressing said weather strip in a line above said reduced portion for causing the forward portion of said weather strip to assume an angle with respect to said supporting member and form a contacting flap for engagement by a moving element.

9. In a weather-proofing structure, a supporting member, a strip of rubber having fabric vulcanized upon its outer side and having a lower reduced section, said strip being positioned upon said supporting member, a clamping member engaging over the rear margin of said strip and having means depressing said strip in a line above said reduced section for causing the forward effective portion of said strip to assume and maintain an angle with respect to said supporting member and means for securing said clamping member in position.

10. In a weather-proofing structure, a supporting member, a resilient weather strip that normally tends to assiune a fiat position positioned upon said member, said strip having a lower reduced section, a clamping member engaging over the rear portion of said weather strip and having means depressing the same in a line above said reduced section for causing the forward portion to assume and maintain an angle with respect to said supporting member and means for securing said clamping member in position.

11. A weather strip device comprising a normally flat resilient strip having a longitudinally extending weakened section and clamping means engaging said strip and pinching the same at said weakened section for causing the portion of said strip beyond said clamping means to assume and be maintained at an angle.

12. In a weather-proofing structure for excluding the weather between a swinging closure mem ber and a frame member of a doorway, a flat sponge rubber strip having fabric vulcanized upon its faces, means for securing said strip to a face of one of said members in such a manner that a free portion of said strip assumes an angle with respect to said face, said free portion of said strip acting like a flap and being defiectable toward said face between the nearly abutting opposed faces of said members when said swinging member is swung into said doorway.

13. In a weather-proofing structure for excluding the weather between a swinging closure member and a frame member of a doorway, a strip of fiat sponge rubber having fabric backings upon its faces to impart resiliency thereto, means for securing said strip to a face of one of said members with a free defiectable portion extending at an angle to said face, said free defiectable portion being maintained at such angle until the same comes in contact with the face of the other member through movement of the closure member into said doorway, said free defiectable portion being then deflected between the faces of said closure member and said frame member.

14. In a weather-proofing structure, clamping means comprising a fiat supporting member, a normally flat strip of fabric backed sponge rubber extending along said member, and a second member overlying one longitudinal edge of said strip, said second member having a longitudinally extending portion offset toward said first member and tightly clamped against said fabric backing to depress the same and compress the sponge rubber thereunder thereby causing the free edge of said strip to be deflected at an angle to said member, and means for fastening said members together.

DAVID H. HARNLY. 

